The Season that Never Was: Feb - May

In addition to its other more horrific effects, the pandemic also makes for really boring racing blogs. This year was originally supposed to be THE year. as in THE YEAR.... I finally went all in, got the built motor I've wanted for this car since about 2012 .... 

• Brand new OEM block (finally ditching the one my former mechanic nearly destroyed)
• 14:1 Cosworth pistons
• Carillo rods
• Custom DRS spec Supertech valves
• Supertech springs
• Supertech Ti Retainers
• Micropolished timing gears
• ARP head/main bolts
• Daily Engineering external wet sump oil pump
• Ferrea roller rockers
• Piper Stage 3 cams (retained from previous)
• built by Dynamic Racing Solutions a shop with a strong history of successful high RPM normally aspirated 2zz race motors.

This should be sufficient to allow my car to run at 9200 rpm safely, restoring (and slightly enhancing) the top speed in 2nd gear which had been lost with the move to a 4.8 final drive.

It arrived in early February, seemingly with enough time to swap it in and get it tuned. By Mid-March it was clear that the realities of the world at large were going to completely prevent racing for the near term. All events were canceled until further notice. This was a real downer, and I found myself unmotivated to continue for a while. By May things were still in a state shown in this video my wife shot:

Things in progress at the time were:  

1. Swap in full race motor built by DRS Motorsport
2. Refresh as many coolant hoses as possible, including heater hoses
3. Remove evaporator, dryer etc remnants of AC system
4. Upgrade to all aluminum radiator
5. Refresh the steering rack. (it had developed some clunking, usually a symptom of nylon bushings wearing out.
6. Add Oil Pressure gauge

I've started making progress again, so in the next post I'll bring things up to date with the current state of affairs.